This international workshop in Ethiopia aimed to provide a platform for south-south learning and to inform policy makers and civil society representatives from Ethiopia’s and the regional climate change policy arena about current progress in 13 REDD+ project countries, among them 5 of 8 target countries, i.e. Brazil, Guyana, Indonesia, Peru and Vietnam.
The international workshop highlighted the following points:
- REDD+ progress in all countries studied has been slow
- drivers of deforestation and degradation remained untackled in all countries studied
- business-as-usual is a powerful force
- conflicting interests in the agendas of different actors involved in deforestation — across and within ministries, and across levels of governance — can be a major challenge for achieving effective, efficient and equitable REDD+
- lack of land-use planning, unclear tenure, weak law enforcement and uncertainty over long-term funding were also found to be common challenges
- lack of continuity in commitment from politicians.
Sixty-six participants, who were government officers, academia and NGOs in Ethiopia participated in the Ethiopia workshop. A summary report from the international workshop was written up in a blog entitled ‘REDD+ politics – or why it is so difficult to tackle large-scale drivers of deforestation‘.